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Rites Page Archive
This is an archive of Tskilegwa's page that is now defunct. Any changes will be reflected on the bboards, so make sure to check those. -- Hobbes (Wizard, 2/14/14) =What is a rite?= A rite is a ritual that has been researched and developed by the garou at some point--often in the distant past. Though rites often have a spiritual component, spirits cannot teach rites to Garou. (Spirits can only teach gifts.) Rites can only be taught by other garou. In some rarer instances, rites can even be created. Generally this requires a fairly experienced garou ritualist. Rites are not the exclusive domain of theurges, though some of the more flashy rites that directly involve spirits certainly make those rituals easier for those that have Spirit Speech. There are rites used with punishments (Stone of Scorn, Stolen Wolf), rites that serve an important social function for the garou (Moot Rite, Gathering for the Departed), mystical rites (Binding, Summoning), accord rites (Rite of Cleansing, Rite of Contrition), and renown rites (Rite of Accomplishment, Rite of Passage). Because rites are by their very nature an extension of mystical tradition, they generally carry a certain "flavor" that echoes who the ritual was learned from. If Joe Garou learns Rite of Talisman Dedication from a Silver Fang, the ritual might involve specially cleaning, annointing, and preparing the items to be dedicated. If Joe learned the same rite from a Red Talon, it might involve hiking a leg to take a whiz on items to be dedicated in order to mark it as being yours. When publicly performing a rite, try to put some flavor and history into it. =How long does it take to perform a rite?= Rites, unlike gifts, cannot be used instantly. As a general rule of thumb, it takes a bare minimum of 10 minutes of focused ritual work per level of the rite in order for a rite to have any chance of success. A level 1 rite can be performed in 10 minutes, a level 2 in 20, a level 3 in 30. However, some rites take far more time to succeed. For instance, Rite of Cleansing can obviously not just be used to just purge a blight in 10 minutes. Rite of Binding generally takes a week or two per talen to be made. Rite of the Fetish takes at least half a year for the most simple of fetishes, or an entire lifetime for the complex and powerful fetishes. =Common / complex rites on GarouMUSH= Below is a selection of common and/or complicated rites on GarouMUSH that differ somewhat from what is described in the sourcebooks. Rite of Talisman Dedication "This rite allows a Garou to bind objects to his/her body so that the object stays with the Garou regardless of the Garou's form." Dedication is one of the most common rites because it is so darn useful. It is usually the very first rite a garou learns after their Rite of Passage. Why? Nobody likes having to take the time to strip naked prior to shifting. The alternative is shredding all your clothes when you shift--or maybe just wearing a loose bed sheet wheld on with a couple clothes pins--neither of which is practical at all for homid garou, who make up the overwhelming majority of Garou. This rite spiritually ties an object to a garou.a garou to spiritually tie an object to his or her body. When the Garou shifts form, the object melds with the Garou and becomes an extention of the Garou in that different form. For instance, leather gloves will transform to fur, possibly black fur, on the forepaws of the lupus form of a Garou. In addition, these objects will cross over into the umbra with the Garou and have a spiritual presence. Most garou are particular about what they eat. Few would subsist exclusively on Twinkies, Jolt cola, fast food, and whatever happens to be in the upper strata of the dumpster that day. Likewise, most Garou tend to be particular about what they bind to (put into) their spiritual being. Because Rite of Talisman Dedication spiritually binds an object to a garou, garou tend to avoid dedicating things that might spiritually contaminate them. It would be unwise to bind a vial of toxic waste to yourself, and many garou consider the binding of technology to oneself to be a means of becoming Weaver-tainted. Most garou--save perhaps Glass Walkers (or ragabash)--probably wouldn't dream of Dedicating their iPod. How much stuff can a garou dedicate? A Garou's permanent gnosis rating (NOT Willpower rating) indicates how many objects that Garou is able to dedicate: one object per gnosis point, but larger or complex objects may require more than one gnosis point. A large knife or dagger would cost 1 point. A sword would cost two. A dead body would cost 7+. A motorbike, 10+. There is an exception to this rule: GarouMUSH has a house rule that a Garou may dedicate a "sensible set of clothes" for just one point--rather than 9 points for two shoes, two socks, underwear, pants, a shirt, and two earrings. Most garou Dedicate their clothes first. Second on the list is generally wither a hand mirror (for getting in to and out of the umbra in a pinch) and/or a simple weapon. The clothes are 1 point. The mirror a second. A simple weapon a third. So that's 3 points of gnosis already--which is slightly above average for most homid garou cliaths. As you've likely noticed, you can't carry much stuff into the umbra even if you have a pretty decent gnosis score. That's intentional. Welcome to the spirit world: leave your mundane items behind. Talisman dedication works only on one object, imbuing it (and just it) with a spiritual resonace. It is possible to dedicate a small backpack like you'd take to high school (1 pt) and then put a brick of C4 explosives and a detonator in it. However, once in the umbra, unzipping the backpack will reveal only the ghostly, almost-impossible-to-see image of the C4 and detonator--which can't be grasped or removed because these items have not been dedicated and thus have no spiritual presence. You didn't spend the gnosis (1or 2 points for the C4 brick and 1 point for the detonator) required for the items to exist in the umbra, so they don't exist in the umbra. However, these items can be carried through the umbra and then out to a different location in the realm--at which point they are again accessible. Likewise, car keys and wallets in pants pockets can be transported along with a garou rather than simply getting dropped at the scene when a Garou steps sideways--if pants that are holding these items were dedicated. But items in the pant pockets are inaccessible in the umbra unless they were dedicated. A gun that is dedicated can be brought into and used in the umbra. But in order to actually have the gun shoot bullets in the umbra, each bullet must have a spiritual presence or the gun simply won't fire. The gun's hammer strikes... a spiritual echo of a bullet and passes right through it, not firing. Click. A six-shot revolver, with all six bullets, costs seven gnosis to dedicate and use in the umbra--with no reloads. (1 point for the gun and 6 points for 6 bullet = 7 gnosis total.) Of course, you can also carry a six shot revolver loaded with 6 bullets, but only the gun and the very first bullet is dedicated. In the realm, you've got 6 bullets to shoot. If you go to the umbra, you've got the gun and 1 bullet that can be fired--for the low, low cost of 2 gnosis. If you shoot the bullet in the umbra and then reach back into the realm, you'd once more be able to shoot the remaining 5 bullets in the gun. If a dedicated item is destroyed or lost, additional items can still be dedicated. Basically, when the rite is performed, the items with the closest proximity override the dedication of not-present objects. So if someone steals your dedicated leather underwear, you can always just dedicate a new pair. This "undedicates" your old leather underpants, though. So if you get them back, don't go shifting in them or you'll get one hell of a wedgie. Talisman Dedication also allows a dedicated item to morph into or out of the character's body when they shift forms. However, when the rite is being performed, the garou must determine what form the object will be in in each form. Dedicated objects cannot change forms without the garou shifting, and in order to access an object in a form where the object would otherwise be a part of the garou, the object must be dropped, then the garou has to shift forms, then the object can be picked up and used again. For instance, Susie Garou has a klaive. She decides she wants to Dedicate her klaive so that it is a tattoo across her back in homid, hispo, and lupus. She wants the sword to be available in glabro and crinos--forms that can use the blade and forms she'd likely take when getting into a fight where the weapon would be useful. Susie cannot be wandering around in homid, decide she wants her klaive, touch the tattoo, and have it turn into a sword in her hand. If Susie is in homid and wants her klaive, she must shift to glabro or crinos first--the two forms where the klaive has not been made into a tattoo. If Susie wants to use the klaive in homid form, she must first shift to glabro or crinos to have the tattoo change into her klaive, drop the klaive so that it is no longer touching her, and then shift back into homid. (Or Susie could be all dramatic by shifting to glabro, grabbing the klaive, tossing it into the air, shifting back to homid, and then catching the klaive.) On GarouMUSH, we don't go asking everyone to detail in their GMINFO that their sword (or whatever) is present in Form X, Y, and Z, but not A and B. Just figure out what your character would do and make a note of it in your head--we're all adults here. Rite of Spirit Awakening "This rite awakens a slumbering spirit, and is also necessary to open a Moon Bridge to other Caerns." So what does all that mean? Well, it means that this rite is performed on the pathstone to open a moonbridge at a caern or, more commonly, an object in the realm that hasn't been around long enough to develop its own spiritual presence. So this rite is useful for, say, awakening the weaver spirit in a computer and then asking it about what kind of information it is storing. (It might need to be bribed first before giving up encoded or classified files, or threatened with "impromptu tech support".) Or the spirit in a sword, awakened, would be slightly stronger and tougher than an unawakened sword--but not worthy of Fetish status. Herbs can be made more purified and potent. This ritual either empowers a pathstone for the purpose of opening a moon bridge or awakens and empowers an otherwise dormant/or ultra-weak spirit. A 1-point expenditure of gnosis, representing a personal spiritual investment from the garou performing the rite, is required to complete this rite and awaken/charge the spirit. Awakened spirits will eventually return to slumber. The rite only buys the spirit 1 day of "life" for every point of gnosis expended by the garou performing the rite. If used on a pathstone to open a moonbridge, it ends once the moonbridge is closed (usually just 10 minutes). After the rite expires, the spirit goes dormant again. They're just too weak and young to survive on their own--especially in the realm. Awakening a sidewalk in a park might give an indication as to roughly how many people walk on it and in which direction, and a basic idea of when they come that way based upon the amount of sunlight that warmed the cement and the number of people that trod across it. (A cement sidewalk spirit would have no other concept of time and its primary means of sensing things would be pressure and heat--not sight.) If you want to know who was in the area recently, an awakened video camera spirit would prove helpful in providing descriptions. An awakened fire in a trashcan could tell you what it'd burned or cooked recently--or give a description of who warmed themselves there recently. Awakened spirits have limitations on their perceptive and communicative abilities that tie in with their nature. A sidewalk cannot tell a Garou if a man in a yellow suit walked over it thirty minutes ago, nor could it tell the Garou that he met with another man named "Bob" and they talked about whether sheer or ultra panty hose felt best. It might be able to tell a Garou how many people walked over it recently and in which directions and if anyone was unusually heavy or light. This rite is not is a means of awakening a spirit and learning detailed accounts as to what transpired in or around an area--it's more like potentially getting a clue of pseudo-forensics evidence, if the right question is asked of the right kind of spirit. Obviously, performing this kind of ritual in a public place, and any resulting interaction with a spirit in the physical world, is going to be obvious, possibly considered a veil breach among certain parties, and potentially attract unwanted attention of normal people and supernatural entities that might be passing by in the realm. Spirit Awakening is a level 2 rite and therefore takes twenty minutes to perform, minimum. One of the powerful aspects of the rite is that the awakened object has both a spiritual and physical presence, so it also essentially awakens the spirit in a manifested (in the physical world) form. This slightly enhances the object within the realm. An Awakened knife is the very essence of a sharp knife and will do slightly more damage (+1), and it wants--even needs--to cut things. An Awakened door is harder to break down or force open. Rite of Binding / Making Talens This level 1 rite is incredibly complicated and only experienced ritualists can learn it. It is also a huge exception to the rule where it takes 10 minutes minimum per level of the rite to complete. This rite generally takes anywhere from half a day to months (or even years) to perform. On average, Rite of Binding usually takes about a week or two to complete for an average-grade talen. Truly powerful talen making is likely to be the centerpiece of a major story involving a good portion of the sept and taking months or perhaps even a year or more. All attempts at binding or talen-making must be run past a spirit wizard prior to beginning the process. If your talen was not approved, it doesn't work. Talens are not made lightly nor for frivilous purposes. Imagine that a spirit materialized in the realm, walked over to your Garou PC, and said this: "Hi! I'd like you to help me out. I need you to get into this inescapable box here. Then I'll lock you in there for some indeterminate period of time, and you'll just have to trust me when I say that I promise to let you out later. While you're in the box, you'll be asleep and not able to do anything at all--you won't know what's going on or be able to react to anything that happens to your box. I'll cart you over into the strange and inhospitable umbra. Then, at a later date, probably in the middle of a really big battle, I'll release you from your confinement and you must leap out and use one of your gifts at whatever I point at, regardless of whether you want to or not. Then you're free to go--assuming I don't actually get killed in the battle, in which case you'll likely be picked up in your box, totally helpless, by our mutual enemy, who will very likely torment you, keep you imprisoned as long as possible, or corrupt you so you become one of them." Every time a Garou attempts to enlist a spirit to be bound into a talen, this is basically what is being asked of that spirit. Spirits therefore do not like to be bound into talens, and will often ask significant favors of Garou who wish to make a talen--generally carrying out deeds for these spirits in the realm (where it's hard for them to reach), gifts of gnosis, furthering a cause of the spirit, or maybe enlisting the garou temporarily as personal thugs in going off to thump some other spirit so it can't be directly linked back to the spirit agreeing to be bound. Basically, creating a talen is generally equivalent to running an ONS (hence another reason why wizardly approval is important). The reason that many spirits will even agree to a binding at all is because a talen allows a spirit that otherwise could not cross over to the realm--or would have to spend a great deal of energy crossing over--to perform a single attack/effect in the realm once released. Unlike the Garou, who can all travel between worlds, the majority of spirits cannot. Garou do not make talens for use in the umbra except in very rare instances. Why? It's less costly and time consume and far more effective to simply ask an umbral spirit for aid or assistance. A free spirit is capable of far more than a bound one, so binding a talen for use in the umbra is simply very, very inefficient use of both the Garou's time and the spirit's. This is also why spirits are generally bound in the umbra--it's rare (and a huge waste of a spirit's power reserves) to manifest in the realm to be bound by a Garou. The process for making a talen, on an IC and OOC level, is as follows: *IC: Come up with the desired effect a talen will have. *IC: Determine what kind of spirit is likely to be able to make that desired effect, how easy said spirit will be able to find, and what kind of bribe/barter/exchange will be offered. (Having Spirit Speech in addition to Rite of Binding is highly useful.) *IC: Determine what an appropriate and respectful vessel for binding that spirit would be. (These are often hand-made artifacts by the garou or rare or unusual objects found in nature that will take some time to discover--i.e. for binding a glass elemental, a piece of glass obtained from a lightning strike onto sand.) *IC: Estimate how long it will likely take to do all of the above as well as how long the spirit is to be bound ("expiration date"). Generally, two weeks is about as long as most spirits are willing to be bound. Longer periods of time will cost the Garou more time, efforts, and favors--or risk the emnity of the bound spirit once it is released. *IC: Come up with a plan of action for doing steps 1-4 above. Generally, a person creating a talen will want additional garou assisting in the rite--if for nothing other than helping to protect the character during the lengthy binding process taking place in the umbra. *OOC: +mail the spirit wizards with all of the above and wait for approval before starting things IC. Wizards may modify the effects of the talen or better clarify its effects. *IC: After gaining approval, roleplay the talen making process. *OOC: After the process is completed, alert the spirit wizards with a +mail and a reminder of the agreed upon effect and expiration date for the talen. Wait for a +mailed response from a wizard. Like +learns, talen making attempts might fail at the wizards' whim, and sometimes they don't work quite like intended. The more effort put into making the talen, the more experienced the garou, and the more the talen-making contributes to RP for people assisting in the process, the less likely this is to happen. *IC: Go enjoy your talen! If a spirit is kept bound in a talen past its expiration date--the date the spirit was promised to be let go--the spirit inside rapidly begins to distrust the garou as a whole--and the garou that bound it and lied to it in particular. Don't be too surprised if the Garou PC gets attacked or ambushed or tricked by the spirit at a later date. And if multiple spirits are mistreated in this fashion, word of this particular garou's offenses spread and it becomes more and more difficult for the offending garou to bind any kind of spirit. Some garou, particularly those that are in a hurry and have no other alternative, may bind spirits in a short period of time--perhaps half a day. This involves obtaining almost any object--even an inappropriate one--to serve as a binding object, locating an appropriate spirit to get the desired effect, then beating the spirit until it is helpless and can be bound to the talen using a 10-minute ritual. This process is typically only used in times of war or in utmost emergencies, as the bound spirit will most assuredly be very angered by this blatent mistreatment and disrespect. While one or three low-powered angered spirits are not too much of a concern for a capable Garou that doesn't visit the umbra much, and they may be able to make up for the transgression afterwards, this practice becomes very dangerous over time or if the ritual involves more powerful or respected spirits. It's extremely unwise to forcibly bind spirits from your own tribal totem without an amazingly good reason. The reason that talen making is so complex is that this level 1 rite is far more powerful than all other level one rites, and even most level 2 and many level 3 rites. Otherwise, characters with this rite would have a distinctly unfair advantage over other characters and everyone and their brother would be tripping over themselves to get their hands on this rite.